Jimmy Fallon Kicks Off ‘The Tonight Show’ With Will Smith, Tina Fey, Seth Rogen and Tons of Special Guests

Last night, Jimmy Fallon officially ushered in a new era of ‘The Tonight Show‘ and, besides a move to New York City, already made the show his own. Can you imagine Jay Leno ever doing The Humpty Dance in a “The Evolution of Hip-Hop Dancing”?

In addition to billed guests Will Smith and U2 (whose appearance included a rooftop performance with the Rutgers University marching band), Fallon’s first ‘Tonight Show’ also saw special guests including Tina Fey, Robert De Niro, Seth Rogen, Stephen Colbert, Mariah Carey, Lindsay Lohan and Kim Kardashian, who oddly became the only person ever to appear on the last episode of one host’s ‘Tonight Show’ and the first episode of the next host’s.

In addition to the aforementioned “Evolution of Hip-Hop Dance” bit with Will Smith (that, of course, included Jimmy and Will doing The Carlton from ‘Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’), an extended bit during the opening including Jimmy settling a bet with all the people who said he would never host ‘The Tonight Show.’ One-by-one celebrities came to the stage to pay up, including Stephen Colbert who dumped a bucket of pennies on Fallon’s head and said, “Welcome to 11:30, b—-.”

All-in-all, it was a solid show for Fallon and a pretty good introduction to the ‘Tonight Show’ audience what the Jimmy Fallon era will be about (the opening is directed by Spike Lee, for example): namely, younger. The Jay Leno era skewed much older and NBC would like to catch up to the Jimmy Kimmel audience, a younger, web-savvy audience. The question is whether NBC will have the patience to wait. They infamously bailed on Conan O’Brien after he debuted a well-received, younger ‘Tonight Show.’ Can Jimmy Fallon weather the storm?

Watch these videos from last night’s premiere episode and let us know what you think.

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